Alchemy is upon us, Planeswalkers!
I wanted to get out this point of view / article as fast as possible for a couple of key reasons:
- Truly a first cut at a brand new format & meta
- Timestamp for Lessons Learned – Future Ramification
- Helpful information to help us navigate the competitive scene!
Hopefully, you find these reasons among many more to be meaningful to you as well, and I would love to hear your thoughts!
You can find this month’s Standard Tier List here along with the article. As always the article is below, along with observations, trends, and the list! Enjoy! As always appreciate your comments below, and feel free to hop on the Discord server as well!
Latest Friday Night Meta – Weekly Series
December Week 1 (Youtube)
I pull these lists together to help give us an alternative competitive angle, as well as trends, with a nice little timestamp as I believe being competitive there is a long term knowledge angle we need to take as well 🙂
Additionally, I like to provide a competitive MTGA Landscape, those who like a visual or just to discuss! You can find the observations along with the tier list below. Please share your thoughts as always, and feel free to comment on the new format or decks I should consider that I missed.
TLDR: Feels like Standard 2022, and doing well despite its own political challenges. Dispersed Archetypes, and good range of play even in the competitive space! Will be fast evolving.
What it is, current meta observations, and deck overviews! Additionally I love sharing the observations and recent changes we have faced in an ever evolving fast paced format.
Items of Interest & Considerations:
- Alchemy or Standard 2022 – Most certainly Alchemy has ushered in quite the controversy, and an addition of an all digital format has left players slightly scratching their heads as well. It certainly feels like a bit of a cash grab, and being boxed out or full blown wildcard consumption can definitely be frustrating! However, on the other side there has been much chatter about balance, brewers paradise, and even what feels like a slightly back to standard 2022 feeling where things don’t seem overpowered. The game seems a bit more fair at the moment.
- Dispersed Archetypes- One of the interesting things to note we have a very wide range of the magic color wheel in use with an ever more broadening in the archetype space. We see a party to sacrifice decks, and aggro to control really dominating the top 8 most played right now. It is a good time to find a deck that works for you or add to the pile!
- Tribal Value – Like above the tribal decks have strengthened. We actually find ourselves with a Mono Red Dragons deck, wolves, and clerics. A plethora of decks with a concise grouping of playable synergies making things work well within their own encapsulated strategies. Each deck has its good and bad matches making things seemingly open to competitive play.
- Blind Sided – This reveal as in all things when a meta is first getting sorted but more meaningfully a new archetype and operating in a data silo has given us some pretty fascinating information. The most popular decks didn’t have the highest win rates. Now at time of writing things have totally flipped to Esper Party being most played & the most winning.
- First Impressions – I have enjoyed the format, its a nice breather from standard, and I enjoy the fast paced changes. This is without a content creators lens on by the way. I think many of us who have played magic, and at a high capacity as well as volume can appreciate a fast moving environment. With that said though, I personally don’t like the taxation that the format has brought, as I myself am mainly a free to play player. Additionally, I think Historic should have remained untouched or an Alchemy Historic format separated. The last note I would like to make is I really wish they would break up all the competitive queues so that it wasn’t all tied to one rating. Exactly like they do just between limited and constructed in general i think things need to become more broad. With the influx of formats it puts certain players at an advantage or disadvantage depending on how you could look at it.
- Brewers Double Take – I will leave you with one final note as someone that LOVES seeing everyones creations, as well as brewing my own. Now is a great time to refresh your decklists, and I do look forward to this on a go forward basis despite the drain! I will see you in the field planeswalkers.
What goes into this list?
For returners or those that are new I have been asked before on how I pull these together as well. BO1 is a slightly different beast vs. BO3. Here I rely heavier on win rate stats at very competitive levels starting at Mythic then work my way backwards through the tiers if needed for additional POVs. It is also based on gameplay – and I myself favor BO1 until I usually hit Top 1500 🙂 – I take into consideration untapped.ggs companion app stats as they tend to have a great amount of data, and a good ability to slice and dice decks. One additional call out again is due to the vastness of decks or newest additions not all data is readily available so for the gaps I try to expand where I can via experience, tournaments, and other data driven sites available.
BO3 has much broader Again, Happy tor impacts when it comes to data. You can find all the sources, experiences, and information I take into consideration in the Additional info spot.
THANK YOU & Additional Info
I have produced this list from a culmination of a few things. I have reached this point by pulling together research data from multiple sources like untapped, MTGAzone, Aetherhub, twitter, personal gameplay, tournament matches, this reddit as well as others, personal stats, and consistently hitting Mythic over the last year and participation in the last Mythic Qualifier.
discuss or talk about decks not included! Feel free to hop in the Multiverse Discord Server. Tier list below plus deck lists (shells – tweak to your heart’s content) if you are looking for some options most all top 1500 at some point many at the #1 Rank, and multiple top end tournament results!
One last thought I would like to share: If you have a competitive deck (different than one featured) I am always happy to do a piece on it time permitting. I have several folks that ask, and have done several player featured decks. I rather enjoy this so please don’t hesitate to reach out or ask. I always try to prioritize with the following and timing or relevance – MTGA Rank (1500s)/Top Tournaments down to Plat2Mythic Decks.
If you would like to do a collaboration feel free to reach out as well.
All Full Deck lists consolidated my website: here
MTGA Alchemy BO1 December 2021 Tier List
*Please note – Fresh cut from today – Video is VERY First Impression
Tier 1 (4)
Esper Party
Mono Red Dragons
Orzhov Clerics
Tier 2 (4)
Mono Black Sacrifice (Deck Link)
Azorius Control
Tier 2 (4)
Gruul Werewolves
MTGA Standard BO3 November 2021 Tier List
Tier 1 (4)
Gruul Werewolves (Deck Link)
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed this slice of competitive Magic the Gathering on Arena or if you are lucky right now in paper. Thank you for your time, and feedback is always welcome! As previously mentioned happy to discuss deck choices, decks, and lists as always!